BONG - BETHMOORA
Bong are one of those bands that totally fill the room, whether listening to them live or on record. Or on cd, ye know. Probably on tape too. You get the idea. I will always remember walking into a gig late and being hit with the heaviest opening band i'd ever seen. The following acts (with far bigger and more expensive amps) sounded tame in comparison, as if Bong had ploughed through the musical landscape and crushed them under their mighty weight. Or as if they had broken the PA.
They are all about uneasy crawl and riff worship, finding the essence and repeating it over and over again with drums and sitar punctuating. Once you hear the sitar in this band it makes you wonder why every other band doesn't have one. Like the 13th Floor Elevators electric jug. They are altogether more ominous and evil than Sleep (who the internet says they worship) and possibly even more monolithic. This stuff practically commands you to lie down and let yourself be flattened.
Everything i've heard has been fantastic but the 25+ minute cover of Pink Floyd's "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" on the second cd of "Bethmoora" bowled me over all over again.
Bongspace
2 comments:
Great review. I totally agree with the sitar/jug thing - those bands do make it sound like everyone should have one. I'm going to get this as soon as - I have the Bong/Quittinirpaaq split 12" and that was awesome.
MxBx
Cheers! It's funny, for a while they didn't seem to have any releases and now there are billions. There's a triple cd on Turgid Animal out now!
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